Sadc Regional summit next stop

Friday, 24th October 2008 10:03pm

A Sadc regional summit in Harare on Monday will try solve the deadlock in the cabinet talks between Zanu PF and the MDC.

South Africa's former President Thabo Mbeki failed to resolve the issue after four days and I hope that the regional summit will be
able to tell the two parties what sharing basically means and doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean that one party takes all they want and leave the other party to feed from leftovers.

It looks like Zanu PF wants both Defence and Home Affairs something which doesn't make sense. Can they justify why
they think they should get both ministries? How would they react if the MDC demanded both ministries too?

Like I said in my last post on the issue it looks like the whole thing is bound to fail very soon and that will be very
disappointing to millions of Zimbabweans who are banking their hopes on the success of this agreement.

But I quite like the idea of fresh free and fair elections. I think that is the best solution because its better
for the people to choose their own president rather having the leadership imposed by an agreement that is being
discussed by less than ten people.

But I also think that the idea of fresh elections will not be popular with Zanu PF who know that it will be impossible for people
to vote for them after the mess they have put the country in over the last 28 years.

I think this agreement is Zanu PF's best chance to stay in power and they can use the years within this agreement
to try and regroup and possibly come with a replacement for Robert Mugabe who like everybody else is not getting
any younger.

So I expected Zanu PF to try and make sure that the agreement worked. To give the MDC the Home Affairs ministry is
not a concession at all on their part but it is common sense.

Also I don't think we should even be talking about them 'giving' ministries because this will be power sharing and
everybody knows that Zanu PF lost the March 29 elections and therefore should be the opposition right now.

This deal gives them a second chance which maybe some may think they hardly deserve but at the moment its about people
who need leaders to take the country forward.

Those ministries whoever has them has to work hard to make sure that Zimbabwe takes a step forward and that can
only be achieved by total co-operation between the two sides.

I hope the Monday meeting will resolve the issue by simply putting all the ministries on the table and let each
party take one after another. If Zanu PF picks defence then MDC can pick Home Affairs and so on and no one should
pick a bundle first and then ask the other one to pick up the rest.

No party in the agreement is a left-overs party and this should be clear to both Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. Lets
hope it works out.